crossing customs by oursleves, a pedelo trip around the worlds highest lake and a 3 day trip across the worlds largest slat flats!!

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well because of our crash and then the inevitable delay it cause we had missed our connection to bolivia...this meant that we would ahve to make our own way there AND do the border crossings ourselves..now degrees we may have but common sense lacks!! well we used our brains and walke to the local bus station where we thought it would be a great idea to take a bus (the same size as a van) with 15 people in it the 3 hours it takes to get to the border...all for the shocking price of 1 british sterling..mind you i dont think i would have wanted to pay anymore than that for a stifling hot bus ride!! got to the border and all had to change money well none of us knew how many bolivianos there were to the pound or euro and couldnt jsut take the woman at the exchange shop's word for it but we had little other choice and so changed our money and headed to the office...all freaking out that we'd lost our vital bits of paper and would be robbed of our 'fake' bills across the border...well im afraid to disappoint but apparently me and cara can do things on our own..it did just invovle collecting stamps and walking through an arch though!!! well we got down to copacabana just intime to see the unset over lake titicaca and have a ittle wander around town...well we had to be so restrained after we gave into the alpaca goods and tried them on (we resisted the ever burning desire to buy even though it was the coldest place we'd been in south america!!) we made big plans to go to the islands on lake titicaca and spend a couple of days doing it...it turns out that there is no atm in town and the only thing we could do was to change money and we didnt have a lot of that!!so in the morning we awoke early, hired a peddle boat, i baggsied the driving and other than the boat being shaped like a swan thats about as exciting as it got for us in copacabana and the worlds highest navigable lake!!! lovely sunset though..

with little time left of our travels in south america we had blitz through bolivia, we had to make a decision as whether to go to uyuni where the worlds largest salt flats are or to go to tupiza, which is cara's dream place-its wehre butch cassidy and the sundance kid was filmed and the lonely planet says, and i quote: ' if you have ever wanted to sling your leg over a horse and say ride 'em cowboy this is the only place to do it'...begrudgingly cara agreed that it would be better to do the salt flats!! no dramas on the way to la paz other than the bus was very definitely not on time! and we booked our 12hour journey to uyuni, while waiting i deceided that we should get some snacks for ride...the ham sandwhiches in the kiosk looked invitingly at me and i was powerless to resist..the worst desicion of my life..12 hours and a very disturbed tummy, no toilets, no road, no tarmac....we had unfortunately met some rather nice norwegian boys on our trip down and had planned to do the 3 day trip with them but to no avail..i think they were secretly pleased after i had to run to toilet literally as i got of the bus in uyuni!! all better the enxt day and trip booked, inclusive of a free night in a hotel-no dramas...of course there were this is bolivia!! the jeep was late and then when we were finally about to leave when we got hauled out of our jeep and thrown into another (no idea what was going on) it transpired that anothyer company had over booked and we were the ones to be the fall guys..not happy!!! did work out very well though (not for the fdriver-the only male in our car!!) but we had a couple of lovely argentine girls, who spoke english which more than made up for the cock ups being made.. with more to come: on our second night there was no drink provided and no water (which everyone had been promised) stocked in the van..not good! but the slat flats are probably one of the most amazing places on earth...i cant evn begin to describe them to you but i will be sure to show you the pictures on my return, we saw flamingoes on a lake that reflected the sky so clearly it was like a mirror, a smoking volcano only a few hundred metres away, went through geysers and the crater of a volcano, saw a lake thats called the 'red lake' and is actually red...a proper red...and some of the most beautiful scenery in the world..unfortunately my camera ran out of battery just before the red lake - nearly cried (Especially because our second night in the hotel had a plug but it wasnt working!!) had a very long trip back to uyuni on the 3rd day and arrived back..yes late..but still in good time to get the bus that our tour agent had taken money from us and said she would book...office closed, went to the bus station no reservations made...well at this point we were actually fuming!! and for once cara got out of her box and when we went back to the hostel where they have an agreement she went up to receptionist and explained in spanish that she was far from happy..he was so scared that he didnt want to deal with us and so directed us to our tour agents' house...ha ha ha!! well we got it all sorted out and another free night in the hostel (what we really wanted to do!!!) and we were able to spend the day with some israeli boys whom we met on the salt flats...very funny guys and lucky really-especially when i made the minor error of saying that i had an israeli scarf....no no its palestinian!!!! he laughed..phew!! next stop la paz and 24 hours of fun having in santiago with caz...

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